Lon Chaney Jr, Carol Ohmart, Quinn K. Redeker

A caretaker devotes himself to three demented adults after their father's death.

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78% liked it

3,628 ratings

Unrated, 1 hr. 21 min.

Directed by: Jack Hill

Release Date: January 1, 1968

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DVD Release Date: September 14, 1999

Stats: 252 reviews

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Flixster Reviews (252)


  • July 25, 2008
    Think "Baby Doll" meets "Baby Jane".

    Director Jack Hill is to Lon Chaney Jr what Ed Wood was to Bella Lugosi. Only Hill did it with a lot more style.

    If you love horror films (cheesy or otherwise), this should be right up your alley. And you can't help but notice just how...( read more) much this "cult classic" influenced many of the more successful horror directors of our time.

    And although the story and the special effects are a little weak...the acting and some of the cinematography are remarkably good.
  • July 13, 2008
    Fantastically bizarre horror spoof/homage featuring a very young, very bald Sig Haig
  • June 9, 2008
    Weird...very weird...
  • April 6, 2008
    A family of three childlike adults, one of whom is obsessed with spiders, is taken care of by family chauffeur Lon Chaney Jr. in a dilapidated house, until some outsiders come calling. The unsettling atmosphere created by director Jack Hill is utterly unique and almost impossib...( read more)le to convey: horrifying, surreal, humorous, touching, and supersaturated with sublimated sexuality.
  • March 28, 2008
    Jack Hill creates a weird story circling about the strange Meryee family which suffers from some strange disease, causing their members to degenerate into primitive pre-human lifeforms, or as Lon Chaney puts it out "rotting of the brain". Chaney himself, of course, is - in a fine...( read more) performance - the loyal caretaker who suddenly has to deal with the fact that some relatives are trying to get their hands on the family estate (and heritage). The film works because it's extremely macabre throughout, and although we hardly see any gore at all - we always know that something bad is just around the corner, and the film features many nasty happenings, from one of the "children" playing 'spider'; a game which involves her wrapping her victim up in rope and proceeding to 'sting' them with a pair of kitchen knives, to the rotted corpse of the family father still lying in it's bed. The cast of characters are superbly odd, and this helps to create the morbid atmosphere that the film revels in. The two girls are the central focus of the film, and they make for two deliciously creepy leads. Their childlike tendencies make them macabre in a way that few horror villains have ever captured. Lon Chaney Jr's chauffeur is another great piece of characterisation, which is portrayed by way of a great performance. He brings just the right amount of sorrow and love to his character, and provides the backbone of the movie. The black humour is rife within the film and this, and the setting - a rickety old farmhouse - only further helps to instill the morbidity into the viewer's mind.
  • August 5, 2009
    A pretty bizarre B-Movie. Black & White we open up with a little 1960'ties Black Comedy. The postman goes to what is rumored to be a haunted mansion, After the initial opening it turns real has into B- Suspense/ Horror. As the post man sticks his head in the window to see what t...( read more)hat noise was, he is slashed by the young daughter of Lon Chaney Jr. A young couple come to adopt the two girls and the fun begins. This is just a B-Movie Cult Classic, though I often wonder what a film has to do to become a cult Classic. I can only squeeze out a 2 star rating on this one.
  • May 16, 2009
    Funny cult horror, well worth seeing.
  • January 28, 2009
    Jack Hill creates a weird story circling about the strange Meryee family which suffers from some strange disease, causing their members to degenerate into primitive pre-human lifeforms

    or as Lon Chaney puts it out "rotting of the brain". Chaney himself, of course, is - in a fi...( read more)ne performance - the loyal caretaker who suddenly has to deal with the fact that some relatives are trying to get their hands on the family estate (and heritage).

    Besides great cinematography (under the given budget) and the genuine storyline one has to admire the characters, making the viewer think of something like "Addams Family" on Crack.

    Classic stuff, with some bits which really are memorable (e.g. Chaney's groan "It's going to be full moon tonight" when the nerd hero and his love interest are discussing horror films in general and "The Wolfman" in special). And, last but not least, there's always Sid Haig...
  • January 24, 2009
    It's the cutest little disturbing movie you'll ever enjoy seeing. Fun to watch, quite obviously the movie that gave directors like Rob Zombie and Tobe Hooper their inspiration.

    ...( read more)et.com/albums/nn174/joantoinette/spiderbaby.gif" border="0" alt="Spider Baby Pictures, Images and Photos"/>
  • January 23, 2009
    Recommended by BlackCatGrinz.

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